[Poll] Opinions on Alt Disclosure

[Kinaed]

From Staff Talking Points: A player came to us and asked us to request other players do not publicly disclose their alts because they found it immersion breaking to know who was behind all of the faces they interact with before they'd even met the other characters.

Staff discussed this issue, and where as we found the stance sympathetic, but it also feels like personal information about ones' self is a right to disclose... but we also acknowledge that we request people not share one another's alts, we really find it irritating as hell when our alts get out, and in general, when alts are publicly known or advertised, it certainly increases the chances of that OOC information mattering ICly.

A staff member suggested we may want to know when someone is away long term OOCly, to which we asked, "Why not just make IC arrangements for one's absence? It seems a bit like an easy 'no one will ding me for disappearing for an IC month if I write an OOC pboard saying I'm away for a week'. Shouldn't a person, if they'll be missed, be ICly saying why they're not available either way?'"

Anyway, the point is that staff couldn't decide how we felt about this one, so we decided to ask the pbase what their opinions are. Care to tell us yours?

[Lei]

I love keeping my various identities under wraps. But I also like the freedom to disclose them when I choose. Sometimes it's helpful in keeping plotlines separate.

[Dreams]

Personally, I have found some people like to disclose who their alts are, and some people like to keep it under wraps more tightly.

Some people, I'm sure, prefer to say they have no alts when they do, so people won't go looking for them.

I... think it could be a bit of an OOC cross. If someone really likes one character a person plays, they may have an affinity toward the other character, as well. Same with dislike - if they dislike one character, they may feel the same toward the other character, without even meeting them. However, I feel that is an unfair choice to make, and I feel that the person making the decision to reveal their alts should know they are taking that risk when revealing their alts to someone else. It could also be the flaw of the person in question - just because one character is nice/mean, doesn't mean the other will be.

I also feel that when there is an absence happening for whatever reason, it's hard not to reveal who your alts are, unless you stagger returns or departures somehow. If it's an unexpected absence, it may be noticed that two or three characters (however many a person may play) all disappear at the same time. It is also true that if nothing is said, it may not be noticed that they all vanish at the same time unless someone specifically points it out, because there are lots of people that go "poof" - unless you make it obvious, it may be obvious only to the person who does the vanishing. Both vanishing and returning at the same time might be noted, but... likely only to the particularly observant.

Someone may also feel the need to reveal an alt for an IC reason - like they cannot participate in support for whatever reason, or they cannot participate in an investigation for whatever reason, and feel pressure to reveal it so it doesn't look like they're being a flake for the sake of being flaky.

I think what should be a rule, though, is that no one should reveal someone else's alt. It's not theirs to reveal.

[-+[-__-]+-]

I'd rather be given the choice to accept or decline. Knowing somebody's alts puts a burden of responsibility on me as I am prone to being more receptive to (or sometimes, more likely to avoid) characters when I know who they're played by. It's sort of similar to someone OOCly informing you that they're a mage -- you're stuck working extra hard to be sure any actions you're taking around that knowledge are fully IC.
I think it's enough of a policy to just ask permission from the other player before disclosing alts.

[Rothgar]

Maybe I'm a total brainlet, or maybe it's too late and I need to get some rest. Could you please clarify that what you're talking about is punishing people for revealing their own alts to others. As in : if I tell someone that I played Rothgar, as well as Curos, I would be punished for this - or, indeed, prohibited from talking about it altogether.
I want to make sure that I'm getting this right before I say anything else, because this seems like a 100% no-brainer to me.

[SilverMoon]

I think players should definitely be allowed to tell another person who their alt is.
Because honestly sometimes, I've had situations, where I've put someone in a difficult situation because I didn't know their alt. They told me, and crossplay and all that was avoided.
But it might be difficult to avoid conflicts like that, if you're not allowed altogether to say who your alt is.
I get what some of you are saying, regarding allowing ooc bleed in to ic, that's totally understandable.
However, I believe the benefits of being able to disclose one's alt, outweight the negatives, that and it is your info. It's kind of creeping in to freaky Friday territory to say you can't disclose your own info to someone.
Just saying.
that is my two cents.

[Temi]

There is also a potential in-between ground: you might be allowed to tell people privately whatever makes sense, but it wouldn't be allowed in public channels or posts, to avoid the blast radius to unnecessary people. Not necessarily voting for that, but more things to consider in your opinion.

[Puciek]

I think the intention behind the suggestion not to ban the knowledge sharing, but to limit the unwanted exposure. Like some people have their alts in titles or whois, and that is information I can't imagine that I am the only one who can live without. Same I also ran into scenes when someone, unprompted, was telling me all about their alts through osay.

[Buzz K[ir]ill]

Asking permission first before disclosing your alt(s) seems like a nice, courteous middle ground to me. I am on board with limiting unwanted exposure.

I think it'd also be perfectly fine in most situations to simply say, "I apologize, but I can't pursue this RP thread further due to an alt conflict. Please excuse me as I [make up a reason to] (leave, change the subject, whatever)" -- without disclosing the name of your alt. Staff should be able to assist if there's a problem.

[galaxgal]

I'd prefer it at least be required to be kept a private affair. I can't see an unfair benefit that's being taken away by people not knowing who peoples' alts are other than, possibly, newcomers being able to accurately gauge the 'true' size of the pbase. Likewise, what is the advantage of openly disclosing your alts other than in rare, extreme situations (like dipping out of an RP thread due to crossover)?

Also keep in mind that not everyone's going to notice that 3 characters suddenly stopped being active at once, unless you broadcast that loudly. I think at that point it's a personal gauge of etiquette (are they GLs? are they involved in ongoing longterm RP threads? can i just use pboard instead for those I'd affect?) unless there is some stricter policy on inactivity notices I missed.